More than 40 years ago, Japan’s Citizen Watch Co. revolutionized the wristwatch world, and timekeeping technology, with the introduction of Eco-Drive, an innovative system that employed the power of light to recharge the batteries of that era’s dominant quartz movements. Eco-Drive calibers were not only the answer many were seeking to the problem of short battery life, and the inconvenience and expense of regular battery replacement, but also to the environmental issue of battery disposal, and remain a core element of Citizen’s timepiece portfolio. This year, Citizen takes the technology to new and unprecedented levels of precision with the introduction of the new Caliber 0100 ? an Eco-Drive movement that calibrates time to an astonishing accuracy of +/- 1 second per year, debuting in three new models produced in limited quantities this fall.
Citizen’s Caliber 0100 is accurate to +/- 1 second per year.
Caliber 0100 achieves its ultra-high accuracy, Citizen says, without relying on synchronized data from satellites or radio-controlled atomic clocks, as do models equipped with Casio’s Multi-Band 6 Atomic Timekeeping technology. Instead, Citizen developed new AT cut type crystal oscillators, which vibrate at a frequency of 8.4 MHz, to replace the more common tuning fork-shaped oscillators used in most quartz movements; the former type’s frequency is more than 250 times higher than the latter’s. Citizen also needed to develop power...